February 2016 - Lost In Michigan

Michigan State Parks March Madness Poll 2016

Posted on February 28, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Michigan State Parks, SP March Madness .

Sunset at Burt Lake State Park

Time for my annual Michigan State Parks March Madness Poll to see what your favorite State Park in Michigan is. I took the list of Parks and Recreational Areas and sorted the list randomly using Random.org. I then broke them up into 16 groups. Pic your favorite from each group and then next week the winners from this round will be paired up and the winners of each poll will move on until we are down to the final pair of parks to determine which is your favorite. Last year Tawas Point State Park took the top honors, and the year before that it was Ludington State Park. Who will win it all this year? you can see the previous years polls HERE

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This round of polls are closed you can vote in the next round HERE

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Dreaming of Summer in February

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Landscapes .

After a warm February weekend, I did not feel like posting a winter pic, so here is a summer sunset from the Sleeping Bear Dunes a few summers ago. I gotta say I earned this pic after climbing my lazy fat rear end up the dune climb. It’s nice to have a break from winter for a little bit but I am behind on getting pics this winter, I have some places I wanted to go to get pics of the snow before the winter ends. Looking at my weather app on my phone it looks like we are supposed to get more snow this week.

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Wahjamega an Odd name with a Tragic History

Posted on February 20, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places .

Out near Caro in the Thumb is the town of Wahjamega, which I always thought was a native American name, but the name Wahjamega is an acronym from the initials of three partners who operated a sawmill here: William A Heartt, James A. Montgomery, and Edgar George Avery. The started the mill in 1852 and by 1853 the town was large enough that it was granted a post office the following year and William A. Heartt was the first postmaster. By 1905 the lumber boom was over and the town’s population declined and the post office was closed.

In 1914 a Farm Colony for Epileptics was Established by the state, and was devoted to the treatment of epilepsy. Much of the original population of the facility was moved from the overcrowded Lapeer State Home for Epileptics. This facility gained some fame later on as it was one of several facilities that was involved in forced sterilizations, known as Eugenics, that took place under Michigan laws from 1914 to the mid 1960’s.

Currently, a portion of the buildings are used as the Caro Center mental health facility run by the state, hopefully, we are treating patients with more compassion than we did in the past.

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Memories of Whitefish Point and the Nicest Day

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Lighthouses .

Rather than bore you with facts about the lighthouse, I figure I would tell you a story about my first trip there back in the mid 90’s. I know it was the mid 90’s because my wife and I had a 92 Ford Explore and an old camper, and were camping in July at Burt Lake State Park. That summer was one of the hottest on record, and while we were there it was almost 100 degrees, ( I think it was literally one of the hottest days on record in Michigan.) I told my wife we need to get away from the heat and go for a drive along with our black lab Woody. Heading north from Indian River and relaxing in the air conditioned comfort of our blue SUV, I was in no hurry to stop and get out into the heat. We ended going all the way to Whitefish Point. I remember getting out of the car and the cool breeze from Lake Superior blowing across the parking lot and actually thinking I need a sweatshirt or something. so we walked around and I am sure I took some pics with my old 35mm camera, (maybe I will find the prints someday) and then we went over to the gift shop and I will never forget what she said. ” this is the nicest day we have had here in a long time” and I remember seeing a thermometer on the outside wall of the store saying it was 70 degrees outside. Now fast forward to last winter when I got this pic, and let me tell you, the wind from Lake Superior cut thru me like razor blades from some sort of frozen hell on earth, but I still stopped and got a pic. I must say that no matter what the weather is like, any day in the U.P. is a nice day.

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The lonely Old Farmhouse on M46

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, Houses .

I drive by this old Farmhouse on M46 near Breckenridge frequently, and I always wonder what its story is. I imagine there was a nice hardworking family living there, and at night they must have sat around the TV watching Jackie Gleason while the house protected them from the harsh Michigan winters. Why TV, because there is remnants of the antenna still on the roof. Its like the digital revolution has passed by, and now the house is just sitting empty waiting for some attention.

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The Unbelievable Story Of Engine House No. 5

Posted on February 15, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Fire Houses .

Built in 1880 in Grand Rapids, on the bank of the Grand River, Engine House No. 5 served the community with a horse-drawn steam pumper and a hose cart. At the time of her construction, she gleamed in white brick with red courses, towered and turreted in almost Byzantine splendor. When it was built, horse-drawn pumpers would race to the fires eventually the horses were replaced with motorized fire trucks. Sadly on the station’s 100th birthday in 1980, she was slated to be torn down. By demolition time, her brick had been painted Tuscan red, most of her decoration covered over with plaster, and her usefulness was at an end. But this once-noble structure wasn’t leveled by a wrecking ball; rather, it was taken apart brick by brick and moved. Today, it rests-restored to her Victorian splendor-in the town of Allendale west of Grand Rapids, and is the Engine House #5 Museum

If you enjoy these little stories of Michigan history check out my Lost In Michigan books which are ON SALE HERE

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Beauty on the Back Roads

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Winter Wonderland .

I needed to go to Bay City this past week and that day we had some snow, so instead of taking 75 I drove the back roads figuring the highway would be slow going. As I crossed over the expressway I seen the long line of cars and tucks slowly moving along the slushy salt covered roads. After crossing the highway I went thru this expanse of trees covered with the falling snow, and knew I made the right decision. I figure if I am going to have to travel slow, I might as well do it somewhere that I can traverse thru some pure Michigan scenery.

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It’s like a Winter Wonderland Palace in Saginaw

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Iconic Buildings .

I woke up this morning to a beautiful site of magical snow covered trees, I love getting photos with freshly fallen snow, but I wish I had a teleporter thingy like in Star Trek so I could beam myself to different locations around the State. I love taking photos around my hometown of Saginaw in the snow, but I wish I could get to other places too. With the slippery roads it is even harder to get to places and take pics. I did take this pic this morning of the Water Works building in Saginaw, and in the snow it looks like a grand palace, and in a way, it is, since inside is one of our most precious resources.

I did mange to get to Bay City and get some pics in the snow too, but that is for a later post.

If you want to see more pics from around Saginaw check out my Pure Saginaw website HERE

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Memories of Paczki Day

Posted on February 6, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Restaurants, Schools .

The former St Josaphat’s School in Carrollton

The best paczki don’t come in a box with the word “PACZKI” in giant red letters sprawled across the top of the box, they come in a plain white paper bag from a Polish Catholic church. My great grandparents immigrated here from Poland, and I went to school at St Josaphat’s in Carrollton ( a Twp. next to Saginaw) and Paczki Day was always a special day at school, we got hot fresh paczki from the women making them in the basement. While I was attending school there in the 80’s the parish built a new building across the street from the school, and the name of the church change recently to St John Paul II. They no longer make the paczki in the basement they are still making them with the same recipe in the new building.

A single one is paczek pronounced “pohn-check” and more than one paczek is paczki, pronounced “poonch-key”. There always seems to be a lot of confusion about paczki, I think because the big box stores started selling them, and they just make them with their usual doughnut recipe. A bismarck and a paczek are not the same thing, the box stores need to stop passing off jelly doughnuts as paczki. According to my grandmother, pączki are made with a richer heavier dough that has more eggs and sugar and Grandma said Polish people did not have a lot of money for fancy fillings, if they had any filling at all, it was usually prune. I think people think the paczki is supposed to be fancy like a French pastry or something, but the paczki recipe was a way polish Catholics used up their dairy and eggs and indulged themselves before lent. When you eat a paczki, it’s not just deep fried dough, its part of Polish heritage and reminds me of a time my relatives came over from Poland seeking a better life. They may not have been rich, but they were honest hard working people. Oh and one more thing, authentic paczki do not have any preservatives so if you don’t eat them the day you get them, the next day the are like eating hockey pucks.

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Charles G. Learned House aka The Garfield Inn, Port Austin

Posted on February 4, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Houses .

A native of New York, contractor Charles G. Learned helped build New York City’s water-works system and the Erie Canal. Around 1837 Learned and his brother-in-law purchased several thousand acres of pine land in Michigan’s Thumb area. Two years later, Learned and his wife, Maria Raymond, came to Port Austin and bought a house and three acres at this site. Learned’s cutover pine land became a 2,000-acre farm where he prospered as an agriculturalist and dairy farmer. With profits from his lumbering and farming enterprises Learned enlarged and updated this house in the French Second Empire style. In the 1860s Ohio congressman, later president, James A. Garfield, a family friend, was a frequent guest here. From 1931 to 1979 the house served as the Mayes Inn and Tower Hotel.

There were rumors that President Garfield was smitten for Charles Learned’s wife Maria and that president requested that he travel to Port Austin to see her after being shot but he was not permitted to travel.

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